Just Dance
by iRomantic
Summary: Uther is determined to find Morgana a suitor and insists she accept any dance requests from the knights. Merlin kidnaps her from the party and uses Uther's orders to ask her for a dance. Mergana fluff, oneshot.


Hey there, guys! :D

In the mood for some Mergana fluff so yeah, bear with me. From Morgana's point of view.

I do not own anything that BBC or the producers of Merlin have copyrighted. Just sayin'.

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><p>Her eyes trailed across the room. The great throne room had been magnificently decorated with red silk banners bearing the Pendragon seal draped upon the walls, lighted torches filled with merrily dancing flames and long tables filled with so many platters of food, some were dangerously close to falling off. Those who graced the castle of Camelot today were only the most royal, richest and noble in all the surrounding kingdoms, all wearing their evening's best and chattering happily with goblets of wine ready in their hand. The entire hall was alive with conversations, laughter and the slight tinkling of music.<p>

But she was not interested in looking at decorations, snobby people or good food. Her eyes were searching quickly through the crowd for someone special, someone . . .

"Morgana."

She jumped lightly and whirled around to find herself looking into the finely ageing face of her guardian and host of the party, the King of Camelot himself, Uther Pendragon. He was the very picture of wealth and power in his red cape and glittering crown. When he smiled, fine lines etched the corners of his eyes and made him strangely, look younger than he actually was. But he wasn't smiling now. Rather, he was frowning at her in a most displeased manner.

_A manner_, she could not help thinking, _she had gotten rather used in the past couple of weeks_.

"My Lord." She curtsied.

He merely scowled back at her. _Good Lord_, she thought irritably. _There was just no pleasing this man_.

"Morgana, you promised me you would give the men a chance," he said very snappishly. "But as far as my powers of observing go - and I assure you they are very good - I cannot help but notice that you turned down every single offer of a dance. _Even_ Prince Richard, who must I remind you, is the prince of the neighboring kingdom and is quite a catch for a husband?"

Morgana released a frustrated sigh.

This was what she and Uther had been fighting about lately; her disinterest in a husband - or indeed, even a suitor - and his manic obsession to find her one. When she'd pointed out to him that she wasn't even of acceptable age to marry, he'd persisted, saying that she needed to find a betrothed who would be able to take over the kingdom at a moment's notice should, perish the thought, Arthur fall. As he'd oh so kindly pointed out to her, she was his ward, living in his castle and holding a huge responsibility.

"I promised that I would give them a chance," she said. "Not that I would consider them."

"Morgana!" he growled. "You should be thanking the heavens that Prince Richard is very powerful, very wealthy and very good looking. Girls who have a better status than you do have fallen short in his eyes. He is a very good catch."

"So is Arthur, according to others," was her dry response. "And yet you do not tell me to marry him."

Uther looked ready to kill her.

"At least accept one's hand to dance and not embarrass me," he snapped. Before she could say anything, he'd swept away, no doubt to entertain more of his friends.

Left alone, Morgana muttered, "No, perish that thought," under her breath and resumed her scan of the room.

After about two more minutes of doing so, she was forced to conclude he wasn't there. He wasn't with Gwen across the room, serving drinks. She wasn't with Gauis near the throne, peering over the food. He wasn't trying to knock some sense into Arthur nearby who was showing off raucously to his knights who were all watching him with worshiping eyes and laughing at every joke he made. He wasn't talking in low voices with Lancelot, who had only just recently returned from wherever it was he went off to, in a corner and he wasn't even struggling to keep Gwaine, who Uther had reluctantly allowed to attend as a guest, away from all the alcohol provided in the room.

He wasn't here.

She felt her shoulders slump. She hadn't seen him the whole day other than this morning when he'd been trailing after Arthur in the market today and sent a wink her way. It was depressing.

Whatever.

Suddenly, she felt a pinch at her side. Startled, she turned around and found a beaming Gwen right behind her. With a cry of delight, she rushed to embrace her maid, squelching the bubble of disappointment that had popped up in her stomach.

"Hi! I thought you were supposed to be serving drinks?"

"I slipped away to come see you," Gwen whispered in a low voice. She tilted her head and frowned into the pretty girl's eyes. "Even from across the room, you look so upset. And you are being so mean to all the knights asking for your hand in dance."

Morgana took a step back. She really didn't want to have this conversation and especially not with Gwen who she suspected could sense a chink in her usually unflappable demeanour. "I'm okay. And all the knights are only asking me because Uther is urging them to. Maybe you should go dance with Lancelot."

Just as she'd thought, Gwen turned scarlet.

"What? What are you talking about?" she protested. "He doesn't like me . . . Not in _that_ way! And he's not my type!" Her face was burning.

Morgana gave her her best smirk. "Of course," she said innocently.

"He isn't!" Gwen cried.

"Okay, okay, relax," Morgana placed her hand on the smaller girl's arm. "Just go serve the drinks and put it out of your mind. After all," she winked at her. "We all want him to have the element of surprise, right?"

"He's not going to ask me to dance!" Gwen protested weakly.

"Sureeee," Morgana replied, drawing the word out. She loved playing with Gwen - her friend was so naive and gullible, she didn't seem to realize that she attracted so many guys. And when it came to Lancelot, she was especially flustered. It was extremely adorable. "Go on, just go serve the drinks. I'll be watching him, okay?" Morgana said, giving her a little push.

"Please don't," Gwen whined but she left anyway, weaving through dancing couples to get to the other side of the room. The moment she reached her station, Morgana spotted Lancelot swooping in to talk to her.

_Typical_, the vivacious brunette thought with a suppressed smile.

She surveyed the room and heaved a sigh. She really wasn't interested flitting through the room, playing the good King Uther's ward. She didn't want to dance with anyone but him, she didn't want to flirt with anyone but him and she definitely did not want to smile and pretend that everything was okay. She hadn't even wanted to be in this party in the first place. The only reason she had finally given in to Uther's orders was because she'd assumed he would be around. But he was MIA.

She was just thinking of faking a stomach ache and calling it a night when a long arm looped around her waist and dragged her backwards through the side door of the throne room. A long fingered hand closed over her mouth, stifling her shriek of surprise. She was yanked backwards through the door and into the dimly lit hall outside. The light spilling from the throne room was cut off as her captor kicked the door shut.

She was just thinking of kicking him and screaming for help when a familiar voice hissed "Shh." into her dark hair which had collapsed from their stylish updo in the tussle. She stopped struggling. Her heart picked up double time.

"Merlin?"

Her captor whirled her around and grinned at her. It was Merlin, dressed in his servant's clothing and beaming cheerfully. Her heart stuttered at the mere sight of him, the perfectness. She felt a shiver ripple down her spine.

"Miss me?" he offered.

She tried to play it cool. "I didn't even remember you existed."

"Ouch," he said but cheerfully, as if he alone knew the truth and whatever she said made no difference. "I saw you turn down all the knights's hands for a dance. They're all very crestfallen."

"They'll get over it," she waved it off dismissively.

Silence fell after she had uttered her words and they stood facing each other, staring at each other. For a moment, she was very aware of how dark it was as his face remained partially in shadow. They kept their eyes upon each other, taking in every feature as if they had been apart for many years rather than mere hours. The silence pressed against Morgana's eardrums but it wasn't uncomfortable. Rather, it felt strangely right. They belonged together and as long as she had him, it didn't matter anymore.

She opened her mouth to tell him this but then he held out his hand.

"Dance with me?"

"What?" She stared at him in shock. She definitely had not been expecting that.

"Dance with me," he repeated with his adorable smile. "Uther told you to give all the men a chance, right? So follow his orders. Dance with me."

She couldn't help giggling. "In the dark. With no music. Where everybody can see us."

At that, his face turned serious and she automatically wished she could take it back. Merlin was very worried about getting caught for fear that she might get a yelling from Uther. He never wanted her to get in trouble which was why he usually avoided her like a plague or addressed her formally in public, two things she hated the most. Even Arthur and Gwen, two of the closest people to them didn't know about their romance. She didn't mind risking Uther's anger for him but she was afraid that if founded out, Uther might punish Merlin, something that sometimes haunted her when she was in bed. So their romance remained a secret. Sometimes Merlin would act spontaneously and surprisingly romantic like present but the moment he was reminded of the danger they were in, he would leave.

Which, in her opinion, hurt worse than being founded out.

"Merlin - " she started to say but then realized that his hand was still outstretched towards her. His eyes were playful.

"Come on."

With that, she fell into his arms and they swayed from side to side. Merlin was never a good dancer so they just remained on the same spot, occasionally turning in a circle but she felt safe. Resting her cheek against his chest, she expelled a breath she hadn't even known she'd been holding.

If Uther found them . . . she lifted her head to look up into his eyes.

"Merlin," she tried again but he placed a finger over his lips.

"Just dance," he said with a smile.

And so she did.

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><p>To be honest, I had a really different idea in mind but then it came to this. D: Have to admit I'm a little disappointed; its really weak compared to all I had planned in my head.<p>

Its short but I wanted a really simply oneshot.

Well, enjoy! :)

Bye bye!

x iRomantic


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